The annual Spring Festival Gala hosted by CCTV this year, as in previous years, continues to be plagued by scandals. Besides accusations of lip-syncing by actors, this event, which is considered to be “sponsored” by Huawei, saw the appearance of equipment from Huawei’s competitors. Some netizens discovered that CCTV not only used Apple computers for the show but also intentionally covered up the Apple logo. Additionally, the host of the Spring Gala was seen using an Apple iPhone to take pictures during a private gathering, which sparked discussions after the photos were deleted by the host.
On the evening of January 28th, CCTV’s 2025 Spring Festival Gala began broadcasting. It was a show with high Huawei presence, with various Huawei smartphones frequently appearing in the program.
For example, in the comedy song “Sure Thing” and the skit “Golden Son-In-Law,” multiple actors were seen holding Huawei Mate 70 RS Masterful phones. In Alan’s sketch “Pay Attention,” the Huawei Mate XT Masterful Foldable phone also made an appearance. Furthermore, models like the Huawei Mate X6 and Mate 70 Pro+ were featured in other segments of the program.
In addition to smartphones, Huawei’s electric car, Hongmeng Intelligent Drive M9, was also showcased at the CCTV Spring Festival Gala in Chongqing, with light displays. According to reports from mainland media, Huawei products have been highly promoted at the CCTV Spring Gala since 2019.
However, circulating videos and photos online suggest that while promoting domestic products on the surface, CCTV seems to favor foreign products behind the scenes.
During the 2025 CCTV Spring Festival Gala, when Hong Kong singer Eason Chan and athlete Zhang Yufei sang “Brave Hero,” some observant netizens noticed that there were two Apple laptops placed on both sides of the percussion instrument played by Eason Chan.
From the front view of Eason Chan, the Apple logo on the laptops was intentionally obscured by CCTV. Some netizens believe that the reason behind this was merely the lack of advertising fees. This raised questions as to why CCTV didn’t showcase the main sponsor Huawei, especially after the extensive advertising the company did during the Spring Festival Gala.
Ironically, the day after the CCTV Spring Festival Gala ended, netizens discovered that CCTV host Nigemat in the Weibo account posted a set of photos (total of 9), which included group photos with other hosts and actors, among which there was a controversial photo showing them holding Apple phones for pictures, despite the Gala promoting Huawei phones.
This incident has sparked attention and discussions among netizens. Some pointed out that Nigemat deleted the controversial photo involving Apple phones on January 31 at 21:26, leaving 8 other photos in the set. Just 12 minutes later, Nigemat added another photo showing him holding a Huawei phone in a group photo with other CCTV hosts.
Comments on Nigemat’s post included endorsements from some netizens, while others commented, “Huawei spent its ad budget in vain during the Spring Festival Gala.” There were also remarks like, “Many people say Huawei is for work but use Apple phones in their personal lives.”
Netizens expressed their surprise, with one saying, “So many appearances of Huawei phones during the Gala, Vivo live streaming backstage, Xiaomi car models on the audience tables, turned out to be fake, and the people on stage are Apple users! This is the reality.”
In fact, not only did internal staff at CCTV abandon Huawei and use Apple phones, but as early as the first day of 2019, the official Huawei X (Twitter) account had used an Apple phone to send New Year greetings. Following the incident, Huawei issued a statement explaining that due to VPN network issues, they were unable to post using a computer, hence the use of an Apple phone.
(Extended reading: Using an iPhone to tweet leads to a mishap, stirring controversy in Huawei’s internal penalties)